Archives

400-408 – Sean McDowell, (seanmcdowell.org), head of the Bible department at Capistrano Valley Schools (cvcs.org), and author of Ethix: Being Bold in a Whatever World and his latest Understanding Intelligent Design:Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language.

413-423 – Frank Turek, founder of crossexamined.org, and author of Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone, with his reflections on the Inauguration.

I enjoyed his line dismissing "worn-out dogmas" but wonder what he means by it. When a liberal dogma and a conservative dogma face off, which dogma will bite and which will roll over? When liberals talk like this, they usually require the conservative to compromise his principles in order to receive their blessing.

// Obama hinted at what he intends do about embryonic stem cell research and possibly "global warming," saying he wants to "restore science to its rightful place." What place would that be? Above morality and common sense? Above other scientists who disagree? There is no consensus about global warming. In fact, there are growing numbers of scientists and growing amounts of scientific evidence questioning whether this is indeed a dangerously warming planet. Will Obama rely only on those scientists who agree with his political positions?On stem cell research, new science is showing that adult stem cells may fulfill the objectives originally believed to be achieved only with embryos. Which science will prevail in such cases? Will it be real science, or the "science" that supports the objectives of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party?

// The media coverage of the Inauguration gave a preview of how they might cover the Second Coming. It was total worship. No doubts were expressed; no questions about his ability to do anything -- from healing the economy to bringing peace to the Middle East. The media have at last found a god in whom they can believe. They are worshipping at the altar of the church of Barack Obama. Journalists and some of their ideological cable TV allies have so much invested in Obama's success that they will be hard-pressed to criticize him for anything and can probably be counted on to explain and justify any mistakes he makes, at least in the first two years.

440 – [1:30] Robert Micone/Bill O'Connoraka "The Money Guys" at Applied Financial,866-SEEK-COUNSEL, and online atappliedfinancialplanning.com.The Money Guys and KKLA are hosting a Strategic Wealth Summit on Saturday, February 7, from 9am-1pm at the Glendale Hilton, with eight guest speakers talking about funding college tuitions, wills, estates, and trusts, investing in commercial real estate and rentals, life and disability insurance, long term care insurance, etc.

443-452 – Lance Pittluck, senior pastor of the Vineyard Church in Anaheim (vcfanaheim.com), comments on the news of the day and gives us an update on his church.

458-508 – George Escobar, founder of Advent Film Group (adventfilmgroup.com) with over 20 years experience in film, television and interactive media, he has served as the VP of Product Development for Discovery and the Executive Director of AOL where he lead the development of AOL Video.He's also a former Producing Fellow for the American Film Institute, and he holds seven U.S. Patents for video authoring systems and online services.He's co-produced, directed and scripted Come What May (comewhatmaymovie.com).

For instance, you will not soon see a German chancellor of Turkish descent. Nor will a child of North African immigrants soon take the reins of power in France. It will be a long time before a Pakistani or Indian last name appears on the mailbox at 10 Downing St. And yet these countries bubble over with haughty finger-waggers eager to lecture backward and provincial America about race and tolerance. Why not enjoy rubbing Barack Obama in their faces?

// Obama is most frequently compared to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. But he also has compared himself to Ronald Reagan, saying he'd like to be a similarly transformative leader, albeit from a different ideological perspective. Only time will tell how successful he will be on that front.

But the analogy may be apt in ways that he and his supporters may not fully appreciate. By hastening the end of the Cold War, Reagan took away the defining cause of the conservative movement. The right had other issues, to be sure. But anti-communism was the coalitional glue. And while principled conservatives were happy to trade a live campaign issue for a dead Soviet Union, the damage to conservative cohesion was real.

If Obama lives up to the dreams of his supporters in writing a new, post-racial chapter for America, he will have at once done more for America than any Democratic president in generations. But he also will have cut the knot holding much of the left together. As an American and as a conservative, I certainly hope that's the case. He's already made a good start of it just by getting elected.

// Simply put, we enter his administration as free-enterprise, market-dominated, laissez-faire America. We will shortly become like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, or Sweden -- a socialist democracy in which the government dominates the economy, determines private-sector priorities and offers a vastly expanded range of services to many more people at much higher taxes.

// He will begin by passing every program for which liberals have lusted for decades, from alternative-energy sources to school renovations, infrastructure repairs and technology enhancements. These are all good programs, but they normally would be stretched out for years. But freed of any constraint on the deficit -- indeed, empowered by a mandate to raise it as high as possible -- Obama will do them all rather quickly.

528-538 – [Dick Morris, cont.]

But it is not his spending that will transform our political system, it is his tax and welfare policies. In the name of short-term stimulus, he will give every American family (who makes less than $200,000) a welfare check of $1,000 euphemistically called a refundable tax credit. And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle class and the poor that the number of Americans who pay no federal income tax will rise from the current one-third of all households to more than half. In the process, he will create a permanent electoral majority that does not pay taxes, but counts on ever-expanding welfare checks from the government. The dependency on the dole, formerly limited in pre-Clinton days to 14 million women and children on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, will now grow to a clear majority of the American population.

Will he raise taxes? Why should he? With a congressional mandate to run the deficit up as high as need be, there is no reason to raise taxes now and risk aggravating the depression. Instead, Obama will follow the opposite of the Reagan strategy. Reagan cut taxes and increased the deficit so that liberals could not increase spending. Obama will raise spending and increase the deficit so that conservatives cannot cut taxes. And, when the economy is restored, he will raise taxes with impunity, since the only people who will have to pay them would be rich Republicans.

544-554 – Your thoughts as "Yes we can!" becomes "Yes we will" on Day 2 of the Obama Era.

Just $26 billion out of the $274 billion set aside in the package would reach the economy by the end of the year, the CBO found. That's a mere 7 percent. Moreover, the AP summed up: "Just one in seven dollars of a huge $18.5 billion investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy programs would be spent within a year and a half."

Like I said two weeks ago ("The Generational Theft Act of 2009, Jan. 7, 2009): It's the timing, stupid.